jessica jones

In today's polls: Tough love. Whether it's Jessica Jones and Luke Cage breaking through each other's tough shells, or the Baroness finding her way under Destro's skin, sometimes the best love stories happen when someone learns to let their guard down and invite someone else in. Of course, these can be high pressure relationships, especially when that special someone is the only man on the island or the last man on Earth.

Marvel’s upcoming AKA Jessica Jones has opened up casting floodgates in advance of its Daredevil predecessor even premiering a trailer for its April 10 Netflix debut, and now another name has joined the ranks. Transformers and Crisis star Rachael Taylor has been cast in the ‘AKA Jessica Jones’ role of Patsy “Trish” Walker, alternately known as Marvel superhero Hellcat.

Marvel made the announcement, clarifying the character’s 1944 origins in the pages of publishing precursor Timely Comics’ Miss America Magazine, before ascending to superhero status in 1976 as Hellcat. Netflix’s AKA Jessica Jones will introduce the character as Jessica’s closest friend, Trish Walker, a syndicated radio talk show host, former model and child TV star, known to fans as “Patsy.”

Netflix's Marvel TV show AKA Jessica Jones may have found its lead villain in former Doctor Who actor David Tennant. Marvel has announced that Tennant will play Kilgrave, "an enigmatic figure from Jessica's past", and fans familiar with the show's inspiration, the Brian Michael Bendis/Michael Gaydos comic Alias, will know that Zebediah Killgrave is the name of Jessica's most dangerous nemesis, The Purple Man.

Created by Stan Lee and Joe Orlando as a Daredevil villain in Daredevil #4 in 1964, The Purple Man is a former spy who gained mind control powers following a mad science accident that also turned his skin and hair purple. A minor but notably sinister villain, he appears in Alias as the cause of the trauma that led Jessica Jones to quit her superhero career, and will likely serve as the lead antagonist in AKA Jessica Jones. Based on the evidence of Marvel's announcement, the TV version does not go by the name The Purple Man, nor even Killgrave, but the more prosaic 'Kilgrave', with one L. He may not even be called Zebediah, which would be a terrible shame. Come to think of it, he may not even be purple.

The recent run of casting for Marvel’s ‘AKA Jessica Jones’ Netflix series brought with it news that ‘Luke Cage’ would first appear in a majorly supporting role, before graduating to his own ‘Defenders’ lead-in series. Now, Marvel has officially confirmed actor Mike Colter will don the yellow shirt and gauntlets as street-level hero-for-hire ‘Luke Cage.’

Though Marvel’s Netflix ‘Daredevil’ has yet to reveal an image of its titular hero in costume, we’d recently learned the second of the ‘Defenders’ series, ‘Jessica Jones’ had begun its casting search. We were split between ‘True Detective’'s Alexandra Daddario and ‘Breaking Bad’'s Krysten Ritter, but the latter seems to have won the role, with ‘The Following’'s Mike Coulter potentially acting as our ‘Luke Cage.’

Marvel’s Netflix Defenders have only been seen through brief glimpses at the forthcoming Daredevil TV series, but with Jessica Jones to follow, casting news couldn’t be far behind. True Detective breakout Alexandra Daddario, Krysten Ritter and more are reportedly under consideration for Marvel’s newest female superhero. Plus, find out who’s testing for the role of Luke Cage!

With a new hardcover omnibus of Alias by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos, Marvel re-releases one of the most critically successful comics of the early 2000s. Apart from its various awards nominations and wins, it was one of just a few comics that everybody seemed to love, during an era when Marvel was equal parts creatively daring and ridiculously misguided. The first comic published under the mature readers MAX imprint, Alias officially broke ground on Marvel's R-rated label with an emphatic F-word, which immediately strikes one as both obvious and necessary. Unlike many other titles that sprung from the MAX imprint, though, Alias went far beyond than the gimmick of sex and cuss words in the Marvel Universe, and was easily one of the most readable comics on the stands for its entire twenty-eight-issue run.

That's just my memory, though, and I wouldn't exactly describe it as sharp. So how good is it on a re-read? Particularly as Marvel prepares a new live-action Netflix series based on the book, and has hinted as recently as last week that Jessica might be "getting back to work".

Last week's announcement of a Netflix/Marvel dealwas huge for fans of Marvel's superhero universe. The subscription-based streaming media service will air four 13-episode series starring Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and Luke Cage, plus a Defenders miniseries that brings the characters together, starting in 2015.

It's big news for Netflix, which while having earned surprising success in original programming has never made such a big gamble in that realm. It's also big news for Marvel, substantially increasing the number of hours of live action film set in their cinematic universe in one swoop. But what does it mean for the audience?

Following up on the news that Cabin in the Woods co-writer and director Drew Goddard will be the showrunner for Marvel's Daredevil series coming to Netflix, Deadline reports that Melissa Rosenberg, the screenwriter of all five of the Twilight films, will be in charge of the Marvel/Netflix Jessica Jones series.

Rosenberg was attached to the series in its original incarnation on ABC, which never came to fruition. She has other experience in comics-based TV, though, having written several episodes of The WB's Birds of Prey series.

In the past year, Netflix has found significant success in expanding its business model to include streaming original series. The popularity and critical praise of shows like Orange Is The New Black, House Of Cards, and the fourth season of Arrested Development have led many to wonder what the next step is for the media streaming giant, and just how significant it would be. It turns out, that next step involves the House Of Ideas, as today Marvel and its parent company Disney have announced an unprecedented partnership with Netflix in which Marvel TV will produce four serialized original programs, starring four of its characters, which will lead into a miniseries, and all of it will stream exclusively on Netflix.

Welcome back to Comics Alliance

It appears that you already have an account created within our VIP network of sites on . To keep your points and personal information safe, we need to verify that it's really you. To activate your account, please confirm your password. When you have confirmed your password, you will be able to log in through Facebook on both sites.

*Please note that your points, prizes and activities will not be shared between programs within our VIP network.

Welcome back to Comics Alliance

It appears that you already have an account on this site associated with . To connect your existing account just click on the account activation button below. You will maintain your existing VIP profile. After you do this, you will be able to always log in to http://comicsalliance.com using your original account information.